


Small Choices

by orphan_account



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, There will be Rayllum later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27457108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Big events are often the result of the small choices that where made along the way.But what if certain characters made different, split second choices that changed everything?How would things change if Viren respected Harrow's choices, Soren ran into Rayla during her assault on Callum and Claudia read the letter in the study?One thing is certain, nothing would be the same again.
Relationships: Claudia & Soren (The Dragon Prince), Claudia & Viren (The Dragon Prince), Soren & Viren (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	Small Choices

Sometimes small, split second choices can change everything.

Small choices that one wouldn’t think about.

Of course, Soren didn’t really think at all. In fact, right now all he was thinking about how bored stiff and restless he was.

He had just finished his exercise for the day and was filled with a sort of restless anticipation. Moonshadow elves were in Katolis, here to assassinate king Harrow.

And that absolutely sucked, Soren liked king Harrow. He always asked him how Soren how his day was, and they often chatted about exercise and battle tactics. King Harrow was practically his uncle.

…An uncle that was also a strict boss at times, but an uncle none the less.

Making sure that his armour was secure and that he had his sword in his belt, (forgetting his sword would have been embarrassing), he left his room and went on his way to his post outside the king’s room.

But the question was, which route was the best one to take in order to get there?

There was the quicker route, pretty much directly taking him to the king’s room. But there was also the slightly longer route to the king’s room with more twists and turns, but it would also allow him to quickly stop by dad’s tower room and maybe get some advice or something.

In one world his sense of duty pushes him to take the quicker route, to get set up and wait for the enemy.

But in this one, his want for a little more leg exercise and see if his dad had any ideas won out.

Soren jogged along the corridors, whistling a little tune as he did so, he’d have to be quick if he wanted to chat with his dad after all.

He took a left and exited out onto the castle walls, but then abruptly stopped in his tracks after seeing two knocked out guards and seeing the tail end of someone entering the tower.

Okay, now _this_ was bad.

Without thinking Soren rushed into the tower and ran up the stairs just in time to see a Moonshadow elf point a blade at prince Callum.

“I'm here for the king. And I'm also here for his son, Prince Ezran.” The assassin claimed.

Not really thinking, Soren raised his sword. “Step away from the prince!”

The assassin turned around as Callum’s eyes widened. “Soren?!”

“Step away from the assassin Callum and get out of here.” Soren said, his voice tight.

Callum edged away slightly, but without even taking her eyes off Soren the assassin said. “Don’t move, I’ll finish this quickly and then you can tell me where the king and prince Ezran are.”

“You’ll get to them over _my_ dead body.” Soren said, gripping his sword tighter.

“You, know I think that I can live with that.” The assassin said dryly, her stance indicating that she was about to attack.

But before the situation could escalate further, a voice came from the painting.

“Pssst Callum.”

Everyone stared at the painting.

“Uh… did that painting just talk?” The assassin asked.

“I think so?” Soren answered, even if it came out more sounding like a question.

Come to think of it, the voice was familiar. Now where did he hear it before…

That’s right! It was his little buddy Ez’s voice!

“I found something.” Ez said from behind the painting.

“Yeah, that’s nice buddy but this really isn’t the time!” Soren called out.

“Oh Soren! You’re there too? Cool!”

The assassin slowly backed towards the painting, keeping an eye on Soren as she did so, and used her leg to open the painting to a backwall that Soren never knew was there.

Ez was standing there, arms filled with jelly tarts and Bait.

Lucky little dude, Soren would _kill_ for a jelly tart right about now.

“Get out of here Ez.” Soren said.

The assassin’s eyes went wide. “That’s the prince?!”

Soren nearly facepalmed. Him and his big mouth.

EZ chomped and swallowed his jelly tart, then lifted Bait up to the assassin. “Have you met Bait? Say hello to my little friend.”

Soren realised what was going to happen a second before it did and closed his eyes as Bait blinded the room.

Once the light faded Soren saw the princes enter the painting entrance.

“Come on!” Callum urged.

Soren briefly considered attacking the elf while she was blinded, but his since of duty won out.

He needed to protect the princes.

Soren rushed in and slammed the painting-door back into place.

“Okay what do we do?” Callum asked.

“Run.” Soren nodded. “Running would be good.”

They set off, running as fast they could along the dungeons. But he had no idea where they were going, he didn’t make a habit of visiting the dungeons and had no idea where anything was.

“You're only making this worse!” The elf called out.

“Worse how?” Callum called back.

Soren stroked his chin thoughtfully as they ran. “Well the elf could torture us before killing us.”

Callum looked horrified at the thought.

“Hey! I have a name you know!” The elf called out indignantly.

“This way!” Ezran rans to the left, followed by Callum and Soren, when they all ran into a dead end.

“A dead end.” Soren sighed. “Great.”

Ezran approached the wall, then turns to Them with a smile. “Time for a puzzle”. The young prince turned back and began pressing his hand against the stone wall. “Rock, rock, stone, rock, stone, stone. Rock, stone, rock, stone, stone...”

While Ez did that, Soren put his back to the wall and held his sword in a defensive stance.

“What’s the difference between a rock and a stone?” Callum asked.

Soren considered this for a moment. “I think that rocks are bigger than stones.”

Ezran smiled proudly as a small clicking noise was heard and he turned to look at the floor behind them and a secret door opened.

It was a stairway leading down into a secret room.

Soren gave an impressed whistle at the same time Callum said a quite “wow.”

The three of them (and Bait) went down, leading them into a room that Soren had never seen, but if he had to guess it was the sort of place that dad or maybe even Claudia might do that weird magic stuff they did.

Ezran pulled a lever to close the passage behind them. They watched as the stairs pulled away while they gave themselves some distance between themselves and the entrance.

“You're sure she won't be able to follow us?” Callum asked.

Ezran shook his head. “No way. It took me over a month to figure out that combination.”

The trio flinched as the door rumbled and reopened. The assassin descended into the room on top of the stairway.

“But how did you...?” Ezran trailed off.

“I just pressed all the stones with the jelly handprints.”

It was official, the second this was all over, Soren was teaching Ez how to wash his hands after eating. Good hygiene was important.

“Stay behind me.” Soren told the princes as he readied his stance. “I deal with the elf.”

“I have a name you know.” The elf said, words laced with frustration.

“But how exactly are we supposed to know your name?” Callum asked reasonably.

“Well, uh… shut up.” The elf retorted. “And my name is Rayla by the way, you should know the name of your doom.”

Soren thought about the most witty comeback he could think of.

“Oh yeah? Well if you’re my doom, then I’m _your_ double doom.”

“Does that even make any sense?”

“Probably not.”

They both had their weapons raised, each waiting for the other to strike first, when Ezran interrupted the standoff.

“Before you guys fight and stuff, I really think that you need to see this.”

“I'm not falling for that flashing frog trick again.” Rayla scowled.

“He's a glow toad. But there's no trick this time” Ez claimed. “Please, look.” He pointed towards a cloaked object.

Rayla hesitated for a moment. “Fine. You uncover it. Slowly.”

“I can hear something inside, something alive.” Ezran said as he pulled down the sheet, revealing a glowing sphere of some kind.

Soren let his sword go down just a little bit as he stared at the weird glowing thing.

“It... It can't be.” Rayla the assassin gasped.

“The egg....it wasn't destroyed.” Cullum said, sounding dumfounded.

“Could someone fill me in here?” Soren requested. “What exactly is that thing?”

“That is the egg of the dragon prince.” Rayla told him and Soren got the feeling that everything had gotten just a bit more complicated.

* * *

Claudia watched as her dad left, going to meet the king presumably, crossing her arms and turning around she paused as she spotted a letter just sitting there, lying on the floor of her dad’s office.

How odd, usually dad opened letters as soon as got them, he was probably just too busy trying to protect the king.

Although the letter did have the kings seal…

Maybe it was important?

Curiosity tugged at her heat and Claudia decided to open it and read the letter, just to see if there was anything important inside that dad needed to know of course. If there wasn’t…

Well she could always seal it back up with dark magic.

So Claudia opened the letter and began to read, not noticing the jelly handprint on the painting door.

* * *

It took some deliberation with himself, but Viren felt like he was ready.

He was going to switch places with the king, with his _brother_ and save his stubborn life.

But just before he entered the room, Viren paused. Something just wasn’t right…

He figured it out a few seconds later, Soren wasn’t at his post. The damn fool, where was he?

All of the guards needed to be ready for the assassins. So with a scowl at his sons neglect of duty, he entered the room where his king resided.

“What’s with the long face?” Harrow chuckled. “Still upset that I’m rejecting your dark magic?”

“It’s not that.” Viren sighed. “Soren wasn’t at his post when I entered, I’ll have to have a word with him after we deal with the matters at hand.”

“Those matters being my probable assassination.” It was Harrow’s turn to sigh. “I don’t think that one man, even one as skilled as Soren, will make much of difference.”

“But one man _can_ make a difference.” Viren insisted. “ _I_ can make a difference.”

Harrow sighed again. “What exactly are you suggesting?”

“The Soulfang serpent.” Viren said.

“Not this again.” Harrow scowled. “I believe that I told you to drop this.”

“You did.” Viren admitted before raising his hand in defence. “But please, allow me to say my piece and if by the end of it, you are not convinced, then I shall honour your wishes and drop the matter entirely.”

Harrow gave a sharp nod. “Fine.”

“Thank you. Now when I first suggested this, you said no because you didn’t want to sacrifice another life for yours, it is an admirable sentiment.” Viren said. “But you also asked me if I was willing to sacrifice my own life. I hesitated and you sent me away. But after some thinking, I have decided that yes. I am willing to sacrifice my life for yours, I would be honoured to use the serpent to trade places with you, so that you may live.”

“Viren, I can’t.”

“But you can.” Viren said. “You are my brother, and I would gladly lay down my life to save yours.”

Rather than argue the point, Harrow just sat down on his bed and gave a sigh that made the king seem like he was in his eighties rather than in his thirties.

“How long have we been doing this for?”

“Harrow?”

“How long have we been going in this cycle for? I have a problem, you offer a solution using dark magic that I reluctantly accept. It solves that problem, but down the line it causes another problem which again, you want to solve with dark magic.” Harrow sighed exhaustedly. “I want to break the cycle… even if it has to end with my death.”

Viren knew he had lost.

He knew this tone, it was one that Harrow used when his mind was absolutely set on something, he used it when he decided to commit absolutely to something.

He used it when he decided that Viren would be in the official portrait, he used it when he decided to share in the suffering of Duren.

He was using it now.

A part of him wanted to argue, to force his king, friend and brother to go through with the plan and survive, but another part of him accepted it.

Viren chose to respect his kings wishes.

“I understand.” Was all Viren said as he set the basket down, and he left the room only to frown.

Soren was still not at his post.

* * *

Rayla, the assassin walked breathlessly towards the egg. “This changes everything.”

“So this is it? The egg of the dragon prince?” Callum asked.

“I don’t believe it, if the egg lives…”

“Maybe it could stop the war.” Callum finished for her.

Callum really had no idea how his day had gotten to this point, he started it out by training with Soren, and now he was looking at the egg of the dragon prince with Ez and an elf assassin named Rayla. Granted Soren was there too, but he looked as confused as the rest of them did.

“He’s okay in there, I can feel it.” Ez said confidently.

“But how, why wasn’t it destroyed?” Callum asked, receiving no answer in return.

It was at this point that Soren stepped out of his stupor. “Woah, woah woah. Time out.” Soren made a T with his hand.

“I believe that we were about to fight.” Soren said. “I mean, you are an assassin and I’m a crown guard.”

Rayla rolled her eyes at this one. “But we don’t need to, the egg changes everything, if we show this to the others then they should call off the attack, we do not need to fight.”

“So the egg is important then?” Soren asked.

“Yes!”

“And if we show it to your assassin buddies, they won’t assassinate the king?”

“That is literally what we were just talking about, but yes.”

“Then let’s get going then.” Soren clapped his hands together but stopped when Rayla tried to pick up the egg. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”

“Picking up the egg, unless you think we should just leave here.” Rayla said, crossing her arms as she did so.

“No way am I letting some elf take the egg, you’ll just steal it.”

“And I suppose that you’d be the one to carry it?” Rayla demanded.

“Guys, guys!” Ez objected. “I’ll carry it.”

“Fine.” Rayla said, the assassin let her blades fall to her side. “Now which way is the one out of here?”

“Oh! I know we can use the way I got out at last time.” Ez said. “It’s this way and it leads to the roof.”

With that announcement the group followed Ez’s passageway to the roof.

Callum could see that Soren was keeping an eye on Rayla and in return Rayla was glaring right back.

Once outside, they all went to the wall that the assassins would be coming from.

“Wait here, behind the crate.” Rayla gestured. “If they see you before I explain then they’ll just attack.”

Seeing the logic in that, Callum, Ezran, Soren and Bait all hid behind them.

“Alright, if we get even a hint of her betraying us, I want you guys to run while I hold them off, got it?” Soren said once they were all in position.

“Alright, but I don’t think it’ll come to that, she seems like a good person.” Ezran said optimistically.

Things went silent as they waited for their que.

* * *

Claudia finished reading the letter feeling quite guilty after doing so.

It was supposed to be a personal letter for Callum, not an unopened letter for her father like she guessed.

Quickly, she used dark magic to seal it back up, no harm was done right?

It was at this point that she began wondering why exactly a letter for Callum was in her father’s study. And then she noticed that the painting door was slightly ajar.

Further investigation showed a jelly handprint on the side of said painting door and Claudia’s worry increased tenfold.

Quickly, Claudia activated her hand light and descended down below, and she made a beeline for the secret room, her heat pounding in her chest Claudia’s worry went from tenfold to twentyfold when she saw that the staircase was still extended.

And her absolute worst fears were confirmed when she saw that the egg was missing.

Claudia paced the room and tried to calm herself down.

“there is no synonym for cinnamon, there is no synonym for cinnamon, there is no synonym for cinnamon…”

A few laps around the room later, Claudia figured out what had happened.

“Obviously, the elves were chasing the princes, and they unfortunately led the elves to here. The princes then left when the elves were distracted by the egg and then the elves left, presumably to kill the king.” Claudia muttered aloud to herself and she was reasonably confident in her assumptions.

And being the reasonable person she was, Claudia decided that the best course of action would be to go and find dad _right now._

So Claudia rushed out of the tower, primal stone in hand, and made a beeline for the king’s room where her dad would be.

But as she did so, Claudia was forced to note that the moon had come out to play.

* * *

“Protect the princes and the egg!” The assassin the called herself Rayla shouted as she engaged the other Moonshadow elf.

And while Soren wasn’t the brightest torch in the room where torches would be kept, even he knew better than to fight a Moonshadow elf on the night of the full moon when it could be avoided.

“This way, this way.” Soren gestured, keeping an eye out for any Moonshadow elves doing Moonshadow elf things.

They stopped in front of the hay cart and Soren had an _idea._

“Right, here’s what’s going to happen, I am going to alert my dad and the king about what’s going on, you guys are going to stay here in the nice and comfy hay cart.”

Ezran nodded in agreement, but Callum shook his head.

“No, I want to come with you.” The step-prince said defiantly.

“To dangerous, besides you need to look after your brother.” Soren explained.

“Ez can protect himself, he’s got Bait and I don’t even think that the cart can hold both of us.” Callum said, not backing down.

They did not have time for a debate here, so Soren agreed. “Fine, but if I tell you to run, you run. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Right then.” Soren turned to face the king’s tower room, cracking his knuckles as to look as cool as possible. “Let’s go save the king.”

* * *

Viren stood ready at his post, taking point with the defence.

While he agreed with Harrow to not use the serpents, that did not mean Viren would hesitate to use his full power to defend the king, even if Soren was neglecting his duties.

He would have to have a serious chat with the boy if they all survived tonight.

“Dad! Dad!”

Viren turned around just in time to see Claudia stop running, acting out of breath. “They have it.”

Viren frowned. “Have what?”

“The egg, the elves have the egg.” Claudia explained and Viren’s eyes widened.

“Are you sure? Are you absolutely certain?” Viren asked, concern and just a hint of fear colouring the tone of his voice.

“I’m sure.” Claudia confirmed his worst fears.

This was bad, the dragon guard elves had told him that the egg was a very dangerous and powerful weapon, if it reached Xadian hands…

Well the assassination of Harrow would be the least of their concerns.

But Viren didn’t have long to think about this when Soren finally made his appearance, the young prince Callum in tow.

“Dad!”

“Soren! Where have you been?” Viren demanded.

“Protecting the princes.” Soren explained. “You see there was this Moonshadow assassin-“

“They’re here already!” Viren’s eyes went wide.

“Yes, but I need to tell you about-”

Viren interrupted again. “Where were they? How many were their number?”

“By the west wall, I counted six.” Soren reported.

Six, six was a manageable number of assassins, if they played their cards right they might just be able to get out of this alive.

“Lord Viren we need to tell you something-” Prince Callum started to say but Viren interrupted him as well.

“Prince Callum I need you to go _now_.” Viren said impatiently. “This place is about to become a warzone and is no place for a child. Soren you can escort him and then return immediately, we will need all hands on deck.”

“You aren’t listening just let us speak, we need to tell you about the egg!” Prince Callum practically shouted at him.

Viren felt something that he hadn’t in a very long time. Complete and utter surprise.

“How do you know about the egg?” Viren said, threating him by raising his staff.

“You see-”

But what Callum was about to saw was lost to the ages as the elf assassins finally arrived, an arrow narrowly missing Viren’s own head.

Claudia was the first to react, she made the symbol for lightning, primal stone in hand, but she had only said “Ful-” before an arrow stuck the back of her hand, causing the primal stone to go flying out of her hand and onto the floor. (Unbeknownst to him Callum would pick up the stone and pocket it for later.)

Viren brought his staff up to block the sword of another assassin as the guards around them also engaged with even more guards pouring into the hallway after hearing the fighting.

“Soren!” Viren roared. “Get the prince out of here!”

“But…”

“Just do it!”

Viren didn’t turn to look, but Soren did as he instructed, protecting the prince as the assassins advanced, one of them even making a beeline for the young prince Callum only for Soren to deflect it’s attacks and quickly stab the assassin in the chest, causing them to curse as their blood spilt everywhere.

But Viren was too focused on his own fight to really notice this, he could only hope that they’d be able to last the night.

* * *

Rayla was waiting for them with Ezran, Bait and the egg.

“Callum! Did you talk with dad?” Ezran asked his brother, to which he shook his head.

“My dad wouldn’t let us get a word in, we had to flee after the rest of the assassins showed up.” Soren explained.

Rayla moved forward. “Say the word and I’ll go back into that tower with you.”

Callum looked to the tower and them back to the egg, he then made an important choice.

“No. It’s up to us now.” Callum said with conviction. “We have to return this egg. We have to keep it safe and carry it to Xadia.”

“And find it’s mother.” Ezran chipped in.

“We could change things, we could make a difference.” Rayla said with a smile.

Callum nodded. “Just the three of us.”

“Ahem.” Soren interrupted with his arms crossed. “No way am I letting you two go with an elf assassin into enemy territory alone. Make that the four of us.” Bait croaked. “Five of us.”

“But you’re a crown guard, shouldn’t you be protecting the king?” Callum suggested.

“What kind of crown guard would I be if I didn’t go with you guys?” Soren retorted. “Besides, king Harrow has my dad and Claudia, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

The five of them in agreement, they set off away from the castle and into the night, unaware of how they were already changing the world.

* * *

Runaan could only stumble out onto the balcony, his wounds were too grave for him to continue fighting.

The others were already dead. He could only hope that Rayla would be able to slip away with the egg and return it to it’s mother.

Hope was the only thing that he had right now.

Runaan looked up to the face of his opponent, they were also injured but would easily be able to survive them. “What are you waiting for? Finish it.”

King Harrow looked grim but nodded, raising his sword to prepare for a final strike.

But his high mage blocked the king’s strike with his staff. “Stop. I have a feeling that we can find other uses for this one.”

The king nodded again as some of his human guards came over to bind Runaan. The witch from earlier assisting them in spite of her hand injury.

Runaan had failed.

The king and his son lived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome one and all to my latest fic, this little plot bunny came to me after my latest re-watch of the show.
> 
> Three small choices, Soren takes a slightly longer route to get to the king and stumbles apon Rayla and Callum having their confrontation, Viren decides to respect Harrow's decision and leaves him on significantly better terms and Claudia reads the letter when she finds it, which will become important later.
> 
> How will this play out? Well feel free to find out next time, thank you all for reading and I'll catch Ya'll on the flip flop.


End file.
